Menu

Peninsular Thinking A conversation about Bremerton, Port Orchard, Poulsbo, Silverdale, Bainbridge Island, Kingston, Manchester, Seabeck, Southworth, Suquamish, Belfair, Keyport, Olalla, Bangor, Hansville, Indianola, Port Gamble, Allyn, Port Ludlow, Gig Harbor and every once in a while something about the good folks who don't have the good fortune to live here.

Locals help find, return lost Kansas dog

Patty headed home to Kansas by
plane Thursday, July 23, after going missing south of Port Orchard
on July 4.

After Paul Sawatski arrived at the Tacoma Narrows
Bridge toll booth and realized that his dog Patty was missing from
the back of the truck, her leash and collar dangling over the side
of the vehicle, he spent three days searching for her along Highway
16 without success.

More than a week after Sawatski returned to Kansas,
several Kitsap County locals continued the search for Patty, a
six-year-old hound dog Sawatski has had since she was seven weeks
old, he said.

Patty was eventually caught in a live trap with the
help of Julie Saavedra, of Bremerton, on July 18, and arrived back
in Kansas July 23, almost three weeks after she went missing.

“She clicked her little paws three times and back to
Kansas she went,” Saavedra said.

The dog was in good health when she was found, she
added.

And Patty is now back to lounging on the bed at home,
Sawatski said.

Sawatski and his fiancé Jessica Mahler were driving
back to Kansas after visiting family in Kitsap County during the
Fourth of July. Sawatski grew up in Seabeck and now lives in
Wichita, Kan.

Patty and Jessica both dislike fire works, so
Sawatski said he decided to take them and their other two dogs —
Charlie and Franklin — to camp grounds were fireworks were not
allowed. Somewhere between the Tremont Street exit and the Tacoma
Narrows Bridge on Highway 16, Sawatski said he thinks Patty must
have jumped out, something she has never done before.

“No one honked. I didn’t hear anything hit the
truck,” he said.

Sawatski and Mahler spent the Fourth of July driving
up and down Highway 16 looking for Patty. There was no sign of the
dog in the road, which kept Sawatski hopeful, he said.

The couple stayed through the weekend searching and
contacting local humane societies. Mahler flew back to Kansas for
work on Monday and Sawatski stay an extra day to search for
Patty.

After seeing online postings for the missing dog,
Saavedra contacted the Sawatski and offered her helping locating
Patty. Saavedra runs the Facebook page “Kitsap and Mason counties
Lost and Found Furbabies.”

People would call Saavedra or Sawatski when they
sighted the dog, narrowing where she could be found.

After several reported sightings around the Purdy
Crescent Road exit, Saavedra set a live trap with a cooked steak,
chew toy and T-shirt that Sawatski mailed her. The hope was that
Sawatski’s scent would bring the hound dog into the trap, Saavedra
said.